Civil Rights · Oct 8, 2026England and Wales hate crime data: Anti-Muslim offences rise 15%

Hate Watch · Official data review · October 8, 2026

Police in England and Wales recorded 5,132 religious hate crimes targeting Muslims in the year ending March 2026, up from 4,479 the year before. The 15% rise comes from the UK Home Office’s October 8 statistical release and covers a full year of police records.^[1]

What the official figures show

Among religious hate crimes with a targeted-religion entry, including entries marked “unknown,” 46% were recorded as targeting Muslims—the largest absolute count for a named religious group. The population-adjusted measure differs: the Home Office reported 117 police-recorded religious hate crimes targeting Jewish people per 10,000 Jewish residents, compared with 13 targeting Muslims per 10,000 Muslim residents, using 2021 census populations. Counts and rates answer different questions; neither should be presented as a competition between communities.^[1]

Independent checks and additional context

Sky News separately reported the 146,825 total, the 15% anti-Muslim increase and the 10% rise in offences targeting Jewish people. It also described the British Muslim Trust’s separate monitoring of incidents at mosques. Those incidents cover a different period and use a different method, so they must not be added to the police total.^[2]

The Guardian independently reported the Home Office release and sought context from the British Muslim Trust. It identified the same 5,132 anti-Muslim offences and 3,162 offences targeting Jewish people. Both outlets checked the same government dataset; their matching figures corroborate its reading, not three separate counts of crime.^[3]

What “record high” means

The latest year-on-year totals include the Metropolitan Police. For longer-term record-high comparisons, the Home Office excludes that force because its crime-recording system changed in February 2024. On that consistent basis, race and religious hate-crime counts reached their highest annual totals since the series began in 2012. The Home Office also warns that improvements in reporting and police recording affect longer-run trends. Police-recorded offences cannot measure every hate crime experienced by the public.^[1]

The Office for National Statistics publishes a separate victimisation survey that can include crimes not reported to police. Its hate-crime estimates combine multiple survey years and cannot establish a change during this single year. The police data show what officers recorded; they cannot by themselves prove why a count changed.^[4][1]

How to verify this report

• Read the Home Office bulletin: Table 2.1 has overall, race and religion totals; Table 2.2 has targeted-religion counts and rates.
• Compare the independent reports and check whether they refer to all-force annual totals or longer-term comparisons excluding the Metropolitan Police.
• Keep the reporting period clear: the data cover the 12 months ending March 2026, although the bulletin appeared October 8.

References

1. UK Home Office, Hate crime, England and Wales, year ending March 2026 (primary statistics). ↩
2. Sky News, October 8, 2026 (independent reporting). ↩
3. The Guardian, October 8, 2026 (independent reporting). ↩
4. Office for National Statistics, Crime in England and Wales: year ending March 2026 (survey and data context). ↩

Method: We checked the Home Office tables against independent reports. Percentage changes are the Home Office’s rounded figures. This describes police-recorded offences, not unique victims, prosecutions or a real-time incident count.